Distributed ledger verification system using proof-of-life

ABSTRACT

A system and method of verifying a user for participation in a block chain of a distributed network. The method includes receiving, by one or more validation devices of the distributed network, a request for participation in adding transaction records to the block chain, the request being received from a mobile communication device of the user and including behavioral data collected by the mobile communication device. In response to determining that the behavioral data satisfies a human characteristic threshold, determining that the behavioral data is not associated with another device of the distributed network. In response to both those conditions above, verifying the user and enabling the user to participate in the block chain distributed network by adding a block including transaction records to the block chain via the mobile communication device.

FIELD

The embodiments discussed herein are related to a distributed ledgerverification system that uses proof of life.

BACKGROUND

With the increase of electronic banking transactions, there is anincreased demand for distributed systems which are able to more easilyand securely monitor and record the number of transactions. One optionwhich has recently become more widely used is through the use of adistributed block chain computer system that includes multiple computingnodes which are each configured to store a copy, or a portion thereof,of a block chain which records various transactions as blocks in theblock chain, each of which contains a hash pointer as a link to aprevious block, a timestamp, and transaction data. By design, blockchains are resistant to modification to the data and utilize thepeer-to-peer nature of a distributed network for validating new blocks.

Block chains are open, distributed ledgers that record transactionsbetween two parties efficiently and in a way so as to be verified bymultiple parties and is designed to be permanent. In order to ensure thesecurity of the block chain and to promote consensus among the ledgerstored by the computing nodes of the system, typical distributed ledgersystems often utilize a “proof-of-work” system, which adds artificialcomputational difficulty to the ledger so that recording transactions tothe ledger or block chain requires a level of difficulty. Under these“proof-of-work” systems, the computing nodes of the system act as minersthat use processing power to attempt to find a target hash for atransaction. Once a valid hash is found, it is broadcast to the networkof computing nodes, and a block is added to the block chain.

One problem with the proof-of-work system, however, is that it is, bydesign, computationally expensive and may incentivize users to obtaincomputing nodes with improved processing power, such as super computers,since this increases the user's odds of identifying the target hash.Systems which utilize proof-of-work are thus inherently inefficient andare a drain on processing power and battery life on computing devicesand as such may deter users from participating in the distributedledger. By creating a mining environment where a relatively few numberof minors control the majority of the computing power on the network,proof-of-work systems are more susceptible to “51% attacks,” where anattacker or group of attackers controlling the majority of the computingpower can prevent other miners from completing blocks and allow theattackers to monopolize the mining of new blocks, reverse transactionsand make it appear although they still had the coin they just spentusing a vulnerability known as “double-spending.” As such, there is aneed for a distributed ledger verification system which is morecomputationally efficient and which incentivizes a greater number ofusers to participate as computing nodes of the system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Example embodiments will be described and explained with additionalspecificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating an embodiment of a distributedledger system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a user device which may be usedto collect behavior data of a user and request permission toparticipation in adding to the block chain of the distributed ledgersystem;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method for verifying a user toparticipate in a block chain of a distributed network;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating an embodiment of an electriccoin or authentication token;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view illustrating an embodiment of a distributedledger;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method for selecting one of theone or more devices in the distributed network to add a block to theblock chain of a distributed network; and

FIG. 7 illustrates an example computing system that may be used in asystem configured to provide payments initiated in an augmented realitydevice.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methodsfor authentication of a user for participation in a distributed ledgersystem. The distributed ledger system may be used in association with,for example, a financial account, a website, and/or any other securefinancial transaction system known in the art. The ledger may beprovided as part of a crypto currency ledger or other distributed ledgerused in authenticating financial transactions. The systems and methodsdescribed herein allow for the authentication of users for participationas “miners” who are able to record subsequent blocks of the block chainof the distributed ledger system. In some embodiments, theauthentication may be performed by a system provider. In otherembodiments, the authentication may be performed by other, previouslyauthenticated computing devices connected to the distributed ledgersystem.

The authentication described herein includes the ability to usebehavioral information stored and/or collected by a user's mobile deviceto confirm that the user exhibits human behavior. This behavioralbehavior is used as a unique identifying feature of a user desiring toparticipate as a miner of the block chain and, as is described morefully below, is used to authenticate the user as a participant or minerof the block chain.

By using the behavioral data collected or stored with a user's mobiledevice, the system and method described herein are able to replace thetraditional “proof-of-work” system with a “proof-of-life” configurationwhere each device is associated with the unique human behavior of asingle user. Such systems and methods provide various advantages, suchas reducing the computer processing power required to be a miner orparticipant in the distributed ledger system which encourages more usersto use the system. Furthermore, the system and methods described hereinare also able to ensure that each user is only able to participate as asingle miner in a one-to-one ratio, which helps prevent 51% attackssince no single user is able to control a disproportionate amount ofprocessing power of the system. Consequently, the systems and methodsdescribed herein offer a more robust and efficient system than iscurrently available.

Referring now to FIG. 1A, which is a block diagram illustrating adistributed network system or “system” 100 for authenticating a user ofa mobile device 102 for participation as a miner in the block chain of adistributed ledger 112 of the system 100. The blockchain shown herein isa part of a decentralized and distributed digital ledger 112 that isused to record transactions across many computers so that the recordcannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequentblocks and the collusion of the network. As is described more fullybelow, the blocks of the blockchain hold batches of valid transactionswhich are hashed and encoded into a Merkle tree, where each blockincludes the hash of the prior block in the blockchain, linking the two.The linked blocks form a chain. This iterative process confirms theintegrity of the previous block, all the way back to the originalgenesis block such that it creates a secure ledger 112 that keeps arecord of all the transactions of the system without enablingmodification. In addition, despite the distributed nature of ablockchain, blockchains can be quickly added by all the devices or nodesof the system. Hence, the system 100 described herein includes adistributed ledger 112 which allows the participants to verify and audittransactions of the ledger 112 inexpensively and ensures the integrityof the system 100.

In the illustrated embodiment, a number of verified distributed ledgerdevices or “devices” 104, 106, and 108 act as nodes of the system 100which are connected via a network 120 to one or more system provider(s)110, which also acts as a node of the system. The devices 104, 106, 108,and 110, devices may operate in association to perform or enable themethod 300 described below with respect to FIG. 3. For example, adistributed group of devices 104, 106, 108 may operate to maintain theledger 112 in a series of distributed transaction databases 104 b, 106b, 108 b, and 110 a, as is discussed below by creating (a.k.a.,“mining”) a distributed crypto currency, processing transactionsinvolving the distributed crypto currency, and/or otherwise performingactions that provide the ledger 112. Further, in some embodiments,system provider device(s) 110 may be connected to the distributed groupof devices 104, 106, and 106 via the network 120. In a specific example,the system provider device may be a payment service provider such as,for example, PayPal, Inc. of San Jose, Calif., which may utilize apayment service provider device 110 to perform authentication orverification of the method 300 discussed below, and in some embodimentsmay operate in cooperation with one or more other system providers (viatheir system provider devices), payees (via their payee devices), payers(via their payer devices), and/or users (via their user devices) toperform the method 200 discussed below. Alternatively, the verificationof the method 300 may be performed by the distributed devices 104, 106,and 108 which have been previously verified by the system providerdevice 110. As is described more fully with respect to FIG. 2, each ofthe distributed devices 104, 106, and 108 has performed anauthentication process which utilized the unique behavioral data 104 a,106 a, and 108 a which has been captured by the respective devices 104,106, and 108.

As is described more fully below, the unique behavioral data 102 a or auser device 102 requesting to act as a miner or participant in writingthe block chain of the distributed ledger 112 is analyzed by otherdevices of the distributed system 100, including the system providerdevice 110 and/or the various previously verified devices 104 a, 106 a,and/or 108 a. This analysis may involve identifying the existence orabsence of a threshold of human characteristics or behavior and thecomparison of the behavioral data 102 a to the behavioral data 104 a,106 a, 108 a of other devices 104, 106, and 108 acting as miners of theblock chain or to a behavioral template database 130 associated with thesystem provider device 110 to ensure that each user device issignificantly associated with a single user who exhibits human behaviorsand that no single user is attempting to participate with or write tothe block chain using more than one device.

However, these embodiments are meant to be merely illustrative, and oneof skill in the art in possession of the present disclosure willrecognize that a wide variety of system providers may operate, alone ortogether, to provide the systems and methods discussed herein withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure.

For example, the verified distributed ledger devices 104, 106, and 108and/or system provider device 110 may each include one or moreprocessors, memories, and other appropriate components for executinginstructions such as program code and/or data stored on one or morecomputer readable mediums to implement the various applications, data,and steps described herein. For example, such instructions may be storedin one or more computer readable mediums such as memories or datastorage devices internal and/or external to various components of thesystem 100, and/or accessible over the network 120.

The network 120 may be implemented as a single network or a combinationof multiple networks. For example, in various embodiments, the network120 may include the Internet and/or one or more intranets, landlinenetworks, wireless networks, cellular networks, and/or other appropriatetypes of networks.

The verified distributed ledger devices 104, 106, and 108 may beimplemented using any appropriate combination of hardware and/orsoftware configured for wired and/or wireless communication over network120. For example, in one embodiment, the verified distributed ledgerdevices 104, 106, and 108 may be implemented as mobile communicationdevices connected by the Internet. As such, verified distributed ledgerdevices 104, 106, and 108 may be a smart phone, wearable computingdevice, and/or other types of mobile computing devices.

The verified distributed ledger devices 104, 106, and 108 may includeone or more browser applications which may be used, for example, toprovide a convenient interface to permit the user to browse informationavailable over the network 120. For example, in one embodiment, thebrowser application may be implemented as a web browser configured toview information available over the Internet.

The verified distributed ledger devices 104, 106, and 108 may alsoinclude one or more toolbar applications which may be used, for example,to provide user-side processing for performing particular tasks inresponse to operations selected by the user. In one embodiment, thetoolbar application may display a user interface in connection with thebrowser application.

The verified distributed ledger devices 104, 106, and 108 may furtherinclude other applications as may be desired in particular embodimentsto provide particular features to users. In particular, the otherapplications may include a payment application for payments assisted bya payment service provider. The other applications may also includesecurity applications for implementing user-side security features,programmatic user applications for interfacing with appropriateapplication programming interfaces (APIs) over the network 120, or othertypes of applications. Email and/or text applications may also beincluded, which allow the user to send and receive emails and/or textmessages through the network 120. The user devices verified distributedledger devices 104, 106, and 108 include one or more user and/or deviceidentifiers which may be implemented, for example, as operating systemregistry entries, cookies associated with the browser application,identifiers associated with hardware of the verified distributed ledgerdevices 104, 106, and 108, or other appropriate identifiers, such as aphone number. In one embodiment, the user identifier may be used toassociate the user with a particular account as further describedherein.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an embodiment of a user device 200 isillustrated that may be the user device 102 discussed above, and whichmay be provided by a mobile communication device such as a smart phone,smart watch, and/or other suitable mobile devices. It should be noted,that in addition to the specific components described below, the userdevice 102 may also include the components described above with respectto verified distributed ledger devices 104, 106, and 108.

In the illustrated embodiment, the user device 200 includes a chassis202 that houses the components of the user device 200, only some ofwhich are illustrated in FIG. 2. For example, the chassis 202 may housea communications module 204, processing unit 206, and a non-transitorymemory system 205 that includes instructions that, when executed by theprocessing unit 206, cause the processing system 206, including acentral processing unit (CPU) 208 and a graphics processing unit (GPU)210 to provide an application engine 230 configured to perform thefunctions of a variety of different software applications.

The communications module 204 in the illustrated example includes atelecommunications module 204 a configured for enabling communicationwith a communication network, such a cellular network, a WiFitransceiver/antenna 204 b, and a Bluetooth module 204 c. The user device200 may also include a number of other components including a globalposition system (GPS) 212, a microphone 214, a display 216, sensors 218,and/or a camera 220, which may be used to capture behavioral orbehavioral user data in association with the processing unit 206. Thecaptured behavioral or behavioral user data may be stored in the memory205 or may be further analyzed, aggregated, and organized by thesoftware applications of the application engine 230.

In a specific example, the application engine 230 is configured toprovide a health and fitness application 232 which collects and/orstores biometric data of a user as a type of behavioral user behavior.The health and fitness application 232 may store and/or collect avariety of behavioral data 102A in association with other components ofthe device, including the global positioning system (GPS) 212, and oneor more of the sensors 218, potentially including an accelerometer orgyroscope. According to one embodiment, the heath and fitnessapplication 232 may use the data collected by the GPS 212 and thesensors 218 to determine such behavioral data 102A as the number ofsteps a user has taken while holding or carrying the user device 200,the distance traveled by the user in a predetermined period, aparticular path or route taken by a user, a speed or velocity at which auser travels while the user carries the user device 200.

In these or other embodiments, behavioral data 102A corresponding to theuser's interaction with the user device 200 and the applications of theapplication engine 230 may be captured. For example, the frequency atwhich a user interacts with a social media application 236 or internetbrowser 238, the type of interaction, duration, content of theinteraction, time of day at which the interaction(s) with the socialmedia application 236 or internet browser 238 may be stored for furtheranalysis as is described below. For example, a user's search history orbrowsing history of the internet browser 238 may be stored to determinethe existence of human behaviors such as identifying behavioral usepatterns which correspond to the use patterns of other users of thesystem 100 previously identified in the behavioral data 104 a, 106 a,and 108 a of the previously verified distributed ledger devices 104,106, 108 or stored in the behavioral template database 130 of the systemprovider device 110. Additionally or alternatively, a learning machineassociated with the system provider device 110 may be used to performtests on the behavioral data 102A of a user device 102 in order todetermine whether the behavioral data 102A exhibits human behavior. Forexample, in some embodiments, the learning machine may be configured toperform a Turing test on the behavioral data 102A of a user device 102in order to determine whether the behavioral data 102A exhibits humanbehavior.

Furthermore, a user verification application 234 may be used to collectbehavioral data 102A, such as the existence of a unique user thumbprintand the frequency in which it is used to authenticate the user for usingthe user device 102. Similarly, the existence of a user passcode and thefrequency at which it is used may also be collected. As was describedabove, in addition to the frequency and existence of user verificationinformation, other data, such as the time of day at which a user tendsto enter the passcode or perform a thumbprint, vocal, or facialverification may also be captured and stored for further analysis.

As may be understood, other behavioral data associated with the user'suse or interaction with the user device 200 may also be captured asbehavioral data, including, but not limited to the frequency, durationof phone calls are made and received, the number and frequency at whichemails and text messages are sent and received. Furthermore, the usercontacts stored in the user device 200 may also be used to identifyhuman behavioral characteristics. Furthermore, the camera 220 andmicrophone 214 may be used to determine the frequency at which picturesor photos are taken by the user device 200, the content may be analyzedto identify human behavior, such as to identify a network of friends,family, pets, hobbies, and/or subjects in which the user has aparticular interest.

In some instances, the user device 200 may be used in association with asecondary user device 250 which houses various components in a housing262. In some instances, the secondary user device 250 may include abiometric collection device, such as a smartwatch. In this example, thesecondary user device 250 may include a GPS 252 for determining a users'location, processing system 254 for causing the device 250 to perform aseries of operations stored in a executable memory 256, a communicationsystem 258 for communicating with the user device 200 or network 120.The secondary user device 250 also includes a series of sensors 260which may include a heartrate monitor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, anambient temperature monitor, a blood-glucose monitor, a magnetometer, anoximetry sensor, skin conductance sensor, and or a skin temperaturesensor. As may be understood, the secondary user device 250 may be usedto collect additional biometric data which is subsequently transferredto the user device 200 and stored in the memory 205 as behavioral data102A to identify human behaviors, such as a heartrate, breathingpatterns, body temperature, blood-glucose levels, blood-oxygen levels,skin conductance and the like. Further, as may be understood, some ofthese sensors may be included as a sensor 218 of the primary user device200.

The application engine 230 of the user device 200 also includes atransaction wallet application 240 which may be used to log the userinto the distributed ledger system 100 and/or to store any transactionalfees which the user may collect for participating in the block chain, Inaddition to the applications described above, one of skill in the art inpossession of the present disclosure will recognize that otherapplications and computing device functionality may be enabled by theapplication

Referring now to FIG. 3, a method 300 for validating a device 102 forparticipation in the distributed network system 100 is described. Themethod may include block 310, where one or more validation devices 104a, 106 a, 108 a, and 110 of the distributed network 100 receive arequest for participation in a block chain ledger 112 of the distributednetwork 100 from a mobile device 102 of a user. The request includesbehavioral data 102A collected by and/or stored by the mobile device102.

In one embodiment, the behavioral data 102A is analyzed by the systemprovider device 110 to determine at block 312 whether the behavioraldata satisfies a human characteristic threshold. As was brieflydescribed above, this may include performing analyzing the behavioraldata 102A to identify human characteristics, such as typical movementpatterns, biometric patterns, social media behaviors, typical userinteractions with user devices, including frequency type of interactionand the like to perform a Turing test style determination or“proof-of-life” determination which ensures that human user isinteracting with and associated with the user device 102. This mayinclude comparing the behavioral data 102A with a behavioral templatedatabase 130. For example, the behavioral data 102A may be identified toidentify user sleep patterns, device lock/unlock patterns, movementpatterns, the existence of a social network, user behavioral patternscorresponding to typical human interactions with similar social mediaapplications, internet browsers, components of user devices, and thelike.

As may be understood, this may include analyzing multiple data pointsfrom various sources, such as identifying the number of steps a user isdeemed to have walked in a single day with standard heart rate patternsand standard interactions with a social media application. If it isdetermined that the behavior does not correspond with typical humanbehaviors, such as being too predictably periodic, repetitive, orgenerally incongruent, the system provider device 110 may determine thatthe user device 102 has failed the “proof-of-life” test and no mining orparticipation rights of the ledger 112 are given to the user device 102.

In response to determining that the behavioral data 102A satisfies ahuman characteristic threshold at block 312, the system provider device110 determines at block 314 that the behavioral data 102A is notassociated with another device 104A, 106A, and 108A of the distributednetwork system 100. As was previously described, one benefit of thedistributed network system 100 described herein is to assign equalparticipation or mining/hashing rights to the users of the distributednetwork system 100. In order to ensure that a user is not using multipledevices to access the distributed network system 100 to obtain adisproportionate amount of mining/hashing rights, the system providerdevice 110 may compare the behavioral data 102A with the behavioral data104A, 106A, and 108A of other validated devices 104, 106, and 108, whichmay be stored in the behavioral template database 130 as a series ofprofiles. In some instances, this may include analyzing behavioral data104A, 106A, and 108A to identify duplicative data, which may includedigital fingerprint data, facial recognition, social media login andpassword information, credit card or banking information, billingaddress, and the like.

In the instance where it is determined that the behavioral data 102A isdetermined to contain duplicative data to another device 104A, 106A, or108A, the user device 102 is flagged as being a duplicative device and aseries of additional proof-of-life tests may be required andsuccessfully satisfied before the user device 102 is able to participatein the system 100.

In response to determining that the behavioral data 102A is notassociated with another device 104, 106, and 108 of the distributednetwork system 100, the method 300 may proceed to block 316 at which theuser device 102 is verified for participation in the block chain of theledger 112 and is given an equal share of hashing and mining privileges.

In the embodiment described above, the verification of user device 102is performed by the system provider device 100 in association with thebehavioral template database 130. In another embodiment, theverification of the user device 102 may be performed by one or moreverified distributed ledger device 104, 106, and 108. According to thisembodiment, this may involve requesting that a hashing operation isperformed on any personal or sensitive information of a user'sbehavioral information, such as login information, password/passcodeinformation, digital thumbprint, facial recognition, or the like. Such ahashing would ensure that no identifying or sensitive information istransmitted to the verified distributed ledger devices 104, 106, and108, but should duplicate information be transmitted to the verifieddistributed ledger devices from another device, the other distributedledger devices 104, 106, and 108 would receive duplicative hash valuesindicating duplicative data. In addition, information transmitted to andfrom the verified distributed ledger devices 104, 106, and 108 may beencrypted so as to ensure the security of any information which istransmitted.

In the embodiment described above, the method 300 is described as beingperformed during an initial verification process for verifying a user ofthe user device 102 for participation in the block chain ledger 112 ofthe distributed network 100. As may be understood, this verificationprocess may not be performed only during the initial verification andmay be required to be performed periodically by each of the verifieddistributed ledger devices 104, 106, and 108. For example, each useraccount may require a “proof-of-life” verification each predeterminednumber of hours, such as each “24” hours, wherein the behavioral data104 a, 106 a, 108 a of each respective device is transmitted to othervalidation device(s) 102, 104, 106, 108, and/or 110 of the distributednetwork 100 for periodic verification.

In the embodiments described above, a single user device 102 isdescribed as acting as a verified device capable of participating in theblock chain to write further blocks to the ledger 112 as is describedmore fully below. In another embodiment, a single user may elect toassociate more than one user device 102 with their user account. In suchconfigurations, a user may use his or her mobile communication device,such as a smartphone, to supply the behavioral data required to show theinitial and periodic “proof-of-life” as is described above, but mayelect to have the mining or hashing performed by another device, such asa laptop computer, tablet, desktop computer, or other computing device.As such, the user may then transfer the mining process to a secondarydevice, while using a primary mobile device 102 to capture and/or storethe behavioral data 102 a which is used to establish the humancharacteristics required to maintain participation in the block chaindistributed network 100. This embodiment still maintains the same amountof mining or voting privilege per human operator, while providing userswith the system the ability to distribute the processing andconnectivity requirements of the system according to their personalneeds. For example, a desktop computer and a mobile device together mayact as an aggregated verified distributed ledger device 104, wherein themobile device is periodically connected to the network 120 to establishproof-of-life by submitting behavioral data 104 a collected and storedon the device for verification by the other verified devices 106, 108,and 110 of the system 100, whereas a desktop or laptop computer isconstantly connected to the network 120 to participate as a verifiedminer which is able to add transaction records to the block chain of theledger 112.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an embodiment of an electronic coin 400 isillustrated and described briefly for reference to the distributedledger 112 used in some embodiments of the method 300 discussed above.In those embodiments, a crypto currency system associated with thepresent disclosure defines an electronic coin as a chain of digitalsignatures provided by previous owners of the electronic coin tosubsequent owners of the electronic coin. In the illustrated embodiment,the electronic coin 400 is owned by an owner 402, and FIG. 5 illustrateshow the electronic coin 400 is defined by the digital signatures of theprevious owners 404, 406, and 408. Specifically, in transaction A, ahash of the public key of owner 406 (i.e., the owner receiving, as aresult of transaction A, an electronic coin 400 ₁ defined by digitalsignatures provided up to transaction A) and the previous transaction(not illustrated, but occurring prior to transaction A) was signed byowner 408 (i.e., the owner providing, as a result of transaction A, theelectronic coin 400 ₁ defined by digital signatures provided up totransaction A) and added to an initial electronic coin (which wasdefined by digital signatures provided up to the transaction prior totransaction A) such that the electronic coin 400 1 was transferred toowner 406.

Similarly, in transaction B, a hash of the public key of owner 404(i.e., the owner receiving, as a result of transaction B, an electroniccoin 400 ₂ defined by digital signatures provided up to transaction B)and transaction A was signed by owner 406 and added to the electroniccoin 400 ₁ such that the electronic coin 400 ₂ was transferred to owner404. Similarly, in transaction C, a hash of the public key of owner 402(i.e., the owner receiving, as a result of transaction C, the electroniccoin 400 defined by digital signatures provided up to transaction C) andthe transaction B was signed by owner 404 and added to the electroniccoin 400 ₂ such that the electronic coin 400 was transferred to owner402. As may be understood, any payee receiving an electronic coin (e.g.,owner 406 in transaction A, owner 404 in transaction B, and owner 402 intransaction C) can verify the signatures to verify the chain ofownership of the electronic coin. In the discussion below, it should beunderstood that the term “electronic coins” is used to encompass anyamount of electronic coins, and in the embodiments discussed below willtypically by small fractions of a coin (e.g., 0.00000001 electroniccoins) or some amount of a coin with relatively low value.

FIG. 5 is an embodiment of a crypto currency ledger 500, which isillustrated and described briefly for reference to the distributedledger 112 used in some embodiments of the method 300 discussed above.More particularly, once the user device 102 has been validated as aparticipating miner in the distributed ledger system 100, the embodimentof FIG. 5 illustrates how the user device 102 and verified distributedledger devices 104, 106, and 108 operate. Conventionally, the cryptocurrency ledger 500 operates to verify that payers transferring anelectronic coin (e.g., referring back to FIG. 1, owner 106 intransaction A, owner 104 in transaction B, and owner 102 in transactionC) did not “double-spend” (e.g., sign any previous transactionsinvolving) that electronic coin. To produce the crypto currencydistributed ledger 400, the distributed network of devices 104, 106,108, (and 102, if validated), operate to agree on a single history oftransactions in the order in which they were received such that it maybe determined that a transaction between a payer and a payee using anelectronic coin is the first transaction associated with that electroniccoin. Each device 104, 106, and 108 in the distributed network operatescollect new transactions into a block.

For example, for a block 402 that includes a number of transactions 402a, 402 b, and up to 402 c, a device 104, 106, and 108 in the distributednetwork system 100 may each indicate their availability to “chain” theblock 402 to the previous block 404. This may involve the initial orperiodic verification of human behavior such as described above. Aprevious hash of the block 402 may operate as a selection algorithm forselecting which of the devices 104, 106, and 108 is selected to chainthe block 402 to the previous block 404.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the method 600 for selecting adevice for chaining block 402 to the block chain 404. At 610, one ormore devices connected to the distributed network which have beenpreviously validated for participation in the block chain areidentified. At 620, one of the previously validated one or more devicesconnected to the distributed network are selected to add a subsequentblock to the block chain.

Pursuant to the selection 620, a selection algorithm or mechanism may beused for selecting a device 104, 106, and 108. One example of a suitablemechanism for selecting a particular device 104, 106, and 108, includesa request for the period of time to which a user device 104, 106, or 108has been connected to the distributed network system 100, such that thedevice 104, 106, and 108 which returns a response with the greatestvalue is selected and may then “chain” the block 402 to the previousblock 404 (which may have been “chained” to a previous block, notillustrated, in the same manner). Alternatively, the selection may beperformed based on a random number hash, such that if a random number nis selected, the nth device requesting permission to chain block 402 isgranted permission. In another configuration, a combination of these twomechanisms may be used and/or a weighting operation such that the lengthto which a device 104, 106, and 108 is connected one criteria withrandomization also playing a factor, such as selecting a random devicefrom a subset of devices which have been connected to the system 100 formore than a predetermined period of time without being selected to add ablock to the block chain. Other weighting factors may be used, such asthe amount of time a user has been participating as a miner in thesystem overall, the amount of time since a user has last been grantedpermission to add a block to block chain, the number of previous blocksthe user has written to the block chain, and/or any other variety ofmechanisms. As such, a number of other means may be used to select aparticular device 104, 106, or 108 for performing the chaining or miningoperation.

In some instances, the newly written block (e.g., block 402) is thenbroadcast to the distributed network system 100, and other devices 104,106, and 108 in the distributed network 100 will accept that block ifall the transactions in it are valid and not already spent (which may bedetermined by creating the next block using the hash of the acceptedblock 402). Additionally, in some types of implementations, thedistributed ledger system 100 will always consider the longest chain ofblocks to be the correct one, and will operate to continue to extend it.If a device receives two different versions of a block, it will work onthe first block received, but save the second block received in case thebranch of the chain that includes the second block becomes longer (atwhich point that device with switch to working on the branch of thechain that includes the second block).

In another embodiment, the amount of total “life” of a block or how longeach participant device 104, 106, and 108 of participating in a blockchain have been connected to the network 120 and validated as exhibitinghuman behavior may be used to determine which is the correct block. Inthis example, a sum total of “life of the block” of all theparticipating devices 104, 106, and 108 may be calculated and used todetermine which chain of blocks is determined to be the correct one. Assuch, the block which has been determined to have established thegreatest “proof of life” will be distributed and extended by the rest ofthe system 100.

Conventionally, the electronic coin(s) 400 and crypto currency publicledger 500 discussed above provide a distributed crypto currency systemin which payers and payees may participate in transactions with eachother using the electronic coins discussed above and without the needfor a centralized authority such as a bank. Each of those transactionsis recorded in the crypto currency public ledger 112 to ensure that theelectronic coins may only be spent by a payer once.

In addition to using digital currency stored in transaction wallet 240of each device to perform transactions, according to some embodiments, averified distributed ledger device 104, 106, and 108 may receive atransaction reward for participating in the distributed ledger 112. Assuch, upon writing a block to the block chain, a device may receive atransaction reward in the form of digital currency being added to thetransaction wallet of the corresponding device 104, 106, and 108.

In addition to the crypto currency system described above, thedistributed ledger need not necessarily be associated with a cryptocurrency system, or in other manners that would be apparent to one ofskill in the art in possession of the present disclosure. For example,one or more system provider devices 110 and/or verified ledger devices104. 106, and 108 coupled together through the network 120 may operateto agree on a single history of transactions (e.g., crypto currencytransactions, authentication transactions, etc.) in a ledger 112 thatmay be stored on respective transaction databases 104 a and 106 a thatare accessible by those system provider device(s) 104 and 106,respectively.

Thus, systems and methods have been described that provide for theverification of a user for participation in a block chain of adistributed network using behavioral data collected and stored on amobile communication device. The systems and methods provide fordistributed block chain ledger which ensures democracy and equal hashingpower amongst users by associating mining and voting rights with theunique user behaviors of the user operating the mobile communicationdevice. The systems and methods eliminate the “proof-of-work” systemdescribed in the block chain participation of previous distributednetworks. This eliminates unnecessarily processing and computing by thedevices of the system and provides a more robust system which is betterequipped to eliminate 51% attacks.

Referring now to FIG. 7, an embodiment of a computer system 700 suitablefor implementing, for example, the user device 102, verified distributedledger devices 104, 106, and 108, and/or system provider device 110, isillustrated. It should be appreciated the components described below maybe used in association with the components described above with respectto FIGS. 1 and 2.

In association with the embodiments described herein, FIG. 7 moreparticularly illustrates an example computing system 700 (“system 700”)that may be used in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure and may be used in addition to the components of userdevice 102, verified distributed ledger devices 104, 106, and 108, andthe system provider device 110 described above. Generally, the processor710 may be the processing unit 206 of FIG. 2 and may include anysuitable special-purpose or general-purpose computer, computing entity,or processing device including various computer hardware or softwaremodules and may be configured to execute instructions stored on anyapplicable computer-readable storage media. For example, the processor710 may include a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signalprocessor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (SIC), aField-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or any other digital or analogcircuitry configured to interpret and/or to execute program instructionsand/or to process data.

Although illustrated as a single processor in FIG. 7, it is understoodthat the processor 710 may include any number of processors distributedacross any number of networks or physical locations that are configuredto perform individually or collectively any number of operationsdescribed herein. In some embodiments, the processor 710 may interpretand/or execute program instructions and/or process data stored in thememory 720, the data storage 730, or the memory 720 and the data storage730. In some embodiments, the processor 710 may fetch programinstructions from the data storage 730 and load the program instructionsinto the memory 720.

After the program instructions are loaded into the memory 720, theprocessor 710 may execute the program instructions. In these and otherembodiments, the payment processing steps of the methods describedherein may be stored in the memory 720 and/or the data storage 730 andmay be loaded and executed by the processor 710 to perform operationswith respect to proof-of-life verification such as described above.

The memory 720 and the data storage 730 may include computer-readablestorage media or one or more computer-readable storage media forcarrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structuresstored thereon. Such computer-readable storage media may include anyavailable media that may be accessed by a general-purpose orspecial-purpose computer, such as the processor 710. By way of example,such computer-readable storage media may include non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media including Random Access Memory (RAM),Read-Only Memory (ROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-OnlyMemory (EEPROM), Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) or other opticaldisk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,flash memory devices (e.g., solid state memory devices), or any otherstorage medium which may be used to carry or store program code in theform of computer-executable instructions or data structures and whichmay be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.Combinations of the above may also be included within the scope ofcomputer-readable storage media. Computer-executable instructions mayinclude, for example, instructions and data configured to cause theprocessor 710 to perform or control performance of a certain operationor group of operations as described in this disclosure.

The communication device 740 may include any component, device, system,or combination thereof that is configured to transmit or receiveinformation over a network. In some embodiments, the communicationdevice 740 may communicate with other devices at other locations, thesame location, or even other components within the same system. Forexample, the communication device 740 may include a modem, a networkcard (wireless or wired), an infrared communication device, a wirelesscommunication device (such as an antenna), and/or chipset (such as aBluetooth device, near-field communication (NFC) device, an 802.6 device(e.g., Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)), a WiFi device, a WiMax device,cellular communication facilities, etc.), and/or the like. Thecommunication device 740 may permit data to be exchanged with a networkand/or any other suitable devices or systems, such as those described inthe present disclosure. For example, when the system 700 is included inthe devices 110, 102, 104, 106, and/or 108 of FIG. 1, the communicationdevice 740 may allow the devices 110, 102, 104, 106, and/or 108 tocommunicate with one or more other devices over the network 120 of FIG.1 and/or other communication avenues.

One skilled in the art, after reviewing this disclosure, may recognizethat modifications, additions, or omissions may be made to the system700 without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Forexample, the system 700 may include more or fewer components than thoseexplicitly illustrated and described.

As used in the present disclosure, the terms “module” or “component” mayrefer to specific hardware implementations configured to perform theactions of the module or component and/or software objects or softwareroutines that may be stored on and/or executed by general purposehardware (e.g., computer-readable media, processing devices, etc.) ofthe computing system. In some embodiments, the different components,modules, engines, and services described in the present disclosure maybe implemented as objects or processes that execute on the computingsystem (e.g., as separate threads). While some of the system and methodsdescribed in the present disclosure are generally described as beingimplemented in software (stored on and/or executed by general purposehardware), specific hardware implementations or a combination ofsoftware and specific hardware implementations are also possible andcontemplated. In this description, a “computing entity” may be anycomputing system as previously defined in the present disclosure, or anymodule or combination of modulates running on a computing system.

The foregoing disclosure is not intended to limit the present disclosureto the precise forms or particular fields of use disclosed. As such, itis contemplated that various alternate embodiments and/or modificationsto the present disclosure, whether explicitly described or impliedherein, are possible in light of the disclosure. Having thus describedembodiments of the present disclosure, it may be recognized that changesmay be made in form and detail without departing from the scope of thepresent disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is limited only by theclaims.

Terms used herein and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies ofthe appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., theterm “including” should be interpreted as “including, but not limitedto,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” theterm “includes” should be interpreted as “includes, but is not limitedto,” etc.).

Additionally, if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation isintended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and inthe absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example,as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may containusage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” tointroduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should notbe construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by theindefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containingsuch introduced claim recitation to embodiments containing only one suchrecitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases“one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or“an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one”or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articlesused to introduce claim recitations.

In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitationis explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that suchrecitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number(e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without othermodifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations).Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “atleast one of A, B, and C, etc.” or “one or more of A, B, and C, etc.” isused, in general such a construction is intended to include A alone, Balone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, orA, B, and C together, etc. For example, the use of the term “and/or” isintended to be construed in this manner.

Further, any disjunctive word or phrase presenting two or morealternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings,should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including oneof the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, thephrase “A or B” should be understood to include the possibilities of “A”or “B” or “A and B.”

However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply thatthe introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or“an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claimrecitation to embodiments containing only one such recitation, even whenthe same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “atleast one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or“an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); thesame holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claimrecitations.

Additionally, the use of the terms “first,” “second,” “third,” etc. arenot necessarily used herein to connote a specific order. Generally, theterms “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., are used to distinguish betweendifferent elements. Absence a showing of a specific that the terms“first,” “second,” “third,” etc. connote a specific order, these termsshould not be understood to connote a specific order.

All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended forpedagogical objects to aid the reader in understanding the presentdisclosure and the concepts contributed by the inventor to furtheringthe art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to suchspecifically recited examples and conditions. Although embodiments ofthe present disclosure have been described in detail, it should beunderstood that various changes, substitutions, and alterations could bemade hereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentdisclosure.

The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the presentdisclosure. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles definedherein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from thespirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is notintended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to beaccorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novelfeatures disclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of verifying a user for participation ina block chain of a distributed network, the method comprising:receiving, by one or more validation devices of the distributed network,a request for participation in adding transaction records to the blockchain, the request being received from a mobile communication device ofthe user and including behavioral data collected by the mobilecommunication device; determine that the behavioral data satisfies ahuman characteristic threshold; determine that the behavioral data isnot associated with another device of the distributed network; and inresponse to both those conditions above, verifying the user and enablingthe user to participate in the block chain distributed network by addinga block including transaction records to the block chain via the mobilecommunication device.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobilecommunication device comprises at least one sensor capable of detectingand collecting motion data corresponding the user movement and thebehavioral data comprises the motion data.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the motion data comprises data selected from the groupconsisting of a number of steps taken by the user, a number of stairsclimbed, a distance traveled over a predetermined period of time, and arate of movement.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobilecommunication device comprises a biometric sensor capable of detectingbiometrics of the user.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobilecommunication device comprises a global positioning system (GPS) capableof detecting a location of the mobile communication device and atracking system capable of detecting the movement of the mobilecommunication device over a period of time.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the mobile communication device stores a plurality ofapplications, and wherein the behavioral data comprises data indicatinga frequency with which the user interacts with the plurality ofapplications.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the validating device isa central computing processing device which is configured to communicatewith a plurality of different mobile communication devices each actingas a node of the block chain distributed network.
 8. The method of claim1, wherein the one or more validation device of the distributed networkis a different mobile communication device acting as a node in adecentralized block chain distributed network.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein determining that the behavioral data is not associated withanother device comprises comparing the behavioral data to otherbehavioral data previously received by other mobile devices acting asnodes in the block chain distributed network.
 10. The method of claim 1,further comprising: periodically requesting additional behavioral datacollected by the mobile communication device; determining that theadditional behavioral data satisfies the human characteristic threshold;determining that the behavioral data is not associated with anotherdevice of the distributed network; and reauthenticating the user andenabling the user to participate in the block chain distributed network.11. A distributed network system for verifying a user for participationin a block chain of the distributed network system network, the systemcomprising: one or more validation devices of the distributed network,each including: a memory device with computer-readable program codestored thereon, a communication device configured to communicate with amobile communication device requesting participation in addingtransaction records to the block chain, and a processor operativelycoupled to the memory device and the communication device, whereinexecuting the computer-readable code is configured to cause the at leastone processing device to: receive the request for participation inadding transaction records to the block chain from a mobilecommunication device of the user and including behavioral data collectedby the mobile communication device; determine that the behavioral datasatisfies a human characteristic threshold; determine that thebehavioral data is not associated with another device of the distributednetwork; and in response to both those conditions above, verify the userand enable the user to participate in the block chain distributednetwork by adding a block including transaction records to the blockchain via the mobile communication device.
 12. The system of claim 11,wherein the mobile communication device comprises at least one sensorcapable of detecting and collecting motion data corresponding the usermovement and the behavioral data comprises the motion data.
 13. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the mobile communication device comprises abiometric sensor capable of detecting biometrics of the user.
 14. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the mobile communication device comprises aglobal positioning system (GPS) capable of detecting a location of themobile communication device and a tracking system capable of detectingthe movement of the mobile communication device over a period of time.15. The system of claim 11, wherein the mobile communication devicestores a plurality of applications, and wherein the behavioral datacomprises data indicating a frequency with which the user interacts withthe plurality of applications.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein atleast one of the one or more validation devices is a central computingprocessing device which is configured to communicate with a plurality ofdifferent mobile communication devices each acting as a node of theblock chain distributed network.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein theone or more validation devices is a different mobile communicationdevice acting as a node in a decentralized block chain distributednetwork.
 18. The system of claim 11, wherein determining that thebehavioral data is not associated with another device comprisescomparing the behavioral data to other behavioral data previouslyreceived by other mobile devices acting as nodes in the block chaindistributed network.
 19. A non-transitory machine-readable mediumcomprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which, inresponse to being executed by one or more processors of a system areadapted to cause the system to perform the method comprising: receive,by one or more validation devices of the distributed network, a requestfor participation in adding transaction records to the block chain, therequest being received from a mobile communication device of the userand including behavioral data collected by the mobile communicationdevice; determine that the behavioral data satisfies a humancharacteristic threshold; determine that the behavioral data is notassociated with another device of the distributed network; and inresponse to both those conditions above, verify the user and enablingthe user to participate in the block chain distributed network by addinga block including transaction records to the block chain via the mobilecommunication device.
 20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium ofclaim 19, wherein the mobile communication device comprises at least onesensor capable of detecting and collecting motion data corresponding theuser movement and the behavioral data comprises the motion data.
 21. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the mobilecommunication device comprises a biometric sensor capable of detectingbiometrics of the user.
 22. The non-transitory machine-readable mediumof claim 19, wherein the mobile communication device comprises a globalpositioning system (GPS) capable of detecting a location of the mobilecommunication device and a tracking system capable of detecting themovement of the mobile communication device over a period of time. 23.The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein themobile communication device stores a plurality of applications, andwherein the behavioral data comprises data indicating a frequency withwhich the user interacts with the plurality of applications.
 24. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein thevalidating device is a central computing processing device which isconfigured to communicate with a plurality of different mobilecommunication devices each acting as a node of the block chaindistributed network.
 25. The non-transitory machine-readable medium ofclaim 19, wherein the one or more validation device of the distributednetwork is a different mobile communication device acting as a node in adecentralized block chain distributed network.